News UpdatesNews Updates

Notification for inspection of provisonal valuation roll and commencement of sitting of valuation court, Agricultural (commercial) Land Reform Act, 1995...... Read More

******

Budget cut worries Nujoma

Land Reform Minister Utoni Nujoma warned the government that cutting his ministry's budget for resettlement farms will not be sustainable.

Nujoma told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the budget was chopped by 45%. “The current allocation of N$384 million for land acquisition and allocation represents a 45% budgetary cut, and this is not sustainable,” the minister stressed. Out of the N$807 million allocated for buying farms in the last financial year, the ministry spent just N$290 million on 36 farms. The N$807 million was more than double the amount allocated for the same purpose in 2014....... Read More

Query: What are the general qualifying criteria for resettlement?

Response: Various criteria are used in order to select the most appropriate applicants for each farming unit. The criteria are based on a variety of factors but are designed to allow the resettled persons to earn a successful living and improve economic efficiency on the resettled farming units.

The broad conditions for selection are: 1. That the beneficiaries should be able to farm, have a background in agriculture or other related activities on which the resettlement is based. 2. Beneficiaries should be prepared to hold land under leasehold and relinquish their agricultural land rights elsewhere. 3. If the resettlement is based on animal husbandry the applicant should relocate only such a number of cattle so as not to exceed the carrying capacity of the parcel. 4. Resettled persons should be prepared to support cost recovery measures whenever they are introduced. 5. Resettled persons should adhere to all agreements and failure to farm productively can result in the cancellation of the leasehold agreement.

Apart from these broad conditions, applicants have to meet several other qualifying criteria.....Read More

The Ministry of Land Reform yesterday announced it has registered and issued certificates for 78 629 customary land rights out of an estimated 240 000 applicants the ministry has targetted.

The ministry also announced it has registered and issued certificates for 857 leasehold rights. A further 151 008 land rights were mapped and digitised. The announcement was made at a one-day symposium on land tenure bankability themed, “Identification and Harnessing Wider (potential) Benefits for Communal Land Rights Registration in Namibia.” The deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Land Reform, Esther Lusepani, said now that communal land registration is making good progress, the ministry intends to move a step forward by ensuring land tenure bankability for residents of communal land...... Read More

Urban and Rural Development Minister Sophia Shaningwa yesterday tabled in parliament the Regional Councils Amendment Bill, which seeks to prohibit foreigners from owning land in settlement areas in Namibia.

The act of limiting land ownership by foreign nationals and juristic persons is an established practice internationally. “A foreign national may not acquire immovable property in a settlement area,” reads a part of the Bill tabled by Shaningwa in the National Assembly.

“An owner of immovable property within a settlement area who intends to alienate the property must alienate the property to a Namibian citizen,” it further reads..... Read More

******

Land reform weighs communal land benefits

The Ministry of Land Reform is pondering the possibility of increasing the benefits associated with the registration of communal land rights. Currently, registered communal land owners are only issued with a certificate. One of the possibilities could be that of using the certificate as collateral. Addressing staff during the annual address at the ministry’s headquarters on Wednesday, the Minister of Land Reform Utoni Nujoma said the ministry would this year make enquiries into the communal land market. “The next financial year will also see an increased effort towards the development of the legal framework around the registration and formalisation of group rights over communal land in line with the mandate to provide secure tenure in communal areas,” Nujoma said....Read More